


In Another Life

by fall_into_life



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 11:11:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/710157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fall_into_life/pseuds/fall_into_life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In her dreams, Shizune wears the First's necklace and Tsunade wears a smile just for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Another Life

Shizune’s been in love with Tsunade for years.

Anyone who knows them - anyone with a brain, really - can tell. Why else follow Tsunade about the world? Why else go with her to the Hokage’s office, when she could take over the Konoha hospital?

It’s always been Tsunade for Shizune. Her uncle got to her before Shizune was old enough to know, but that was just the way of it. She was never jealous of him, never resented that Tsunade gave him her heart. She wasn’t yet a woman, nowhere near competition - not that she’d have tried, not against her favorite uncle.

Tsunade doesn’t look at women as such - can’t, Shizune suspects - but it’s almost better that way. She can and will take care of Tsunade, but there’s something not quite right about trying to be in a relationship with her uncle’s girl.

Sometimes, when Tsunade is stone sober, when she’s on a hot streak - a small one, big ones bode too ill - she’ll take Shizune to bed.

They don’t have sex. Even if Tsunade were attracted to women, even if Shizune weren’t essentially a nun for all she indulges the pretty boys and pretty girls who trail after her in hopes she’ll look away from Tsunade, Shizune doesn’t think their relationship could handle it. They’re too established in their roles, too conscious of their history.

No, on those nights, Tsunade guides Shizune to lay with her. Tsunade gathers her in her arms, holds her close. Shizune clings. She breathes in Tsunade’s scent, feels Tsunade’s grip (the same grip that could kill her if Tsunade wished it) almost as tight as her own.

They breathe together, heartbeats slowing into perfect sync, and Shizune lets herself dream of a world where she was born ten years earlier, where she wore the First’s necklace and Tsunade wore a smile just for her.

[*]

Tsunade knows Shizune is in love with her.

Anyone who knows them - anyone with eyes, really - can tell. Why else deal with Tsunade’s alcoholism and gambling addiction? Why else follow her around the world while in the prime of her life, when she could have been one of Konoha’s premier kunoichi?

She always thought Shizune would grow out of it. She wouldn’t be the first to be attracted to the mystery of the sannin, or to want to be close to a Senju. If she were anyone else, Tsunade would demand more and more of her until she gave up and went home, but she couldn’t do that to Dan’s niece. (She doesn’t really believe she’s responsible for Dan’s death, not down where she keeps the truth locked under layers of grief, but she still feels responsible for Shizune).

Tsunade would almost think Shizune were just platonically in love with her, if not for the look she gets sometimes on the rare occasions Tsunade is just drunk enough to talk passionately about medical techniques. Her eyes darken, she swallows a lot more often, her skin grows flush, and she holds Tsunade’s gaze longer than she ever does any other time. It’s a textbook case of infatuation- only infatuations don’t last years.

It’s been a while, now, since she’s drawn Shizune into her bed. It couldn’t have happened on the road, not with Jiraiya and the brat in the room next door, and it’s taken her a few weeks to deal with the village’s immediate problems and sift through her ANBU. She knows that Hiruzen would never have kept ANBU that couldn’t keep their mouths shut about official village business, but she doubts he had anything personal to hide from the village at large, and she needed to make sure for her own peace of mind that none of the ones assigned to her house are gossips.

“Shizune,” Tsunade says, softer than her normal.

Shizune looks up from the paperwork she’s taken home - she still lives with Tsunade; she technically has an apartment not too far from the Hokage’s residence, but it’s just somewhere she stores her mementos and the clothing she doesn’t wear on a daily basis - and gives Tsunade a half-smile.

Tsunade keeps eye contact for a few moments, lets Shizune take in her relaxed posture and remember the late hour, then rises. She moves, slowly and deliberately, toward her bedroom. Along the way, she brushes her fingertips along Shizune’s shoulder, then the small patch of skin exposed between her clipped haircut and her collar. Shizune shivers, goes still.

Since it became apparent to them both that Tsunade hadn’t just wanted Shizune in her bed once or twice to combat loneliness, Tsunade has stopped outright asking Shizune to lie with her. (“C’mere,” Tsunade had said, those first few times, “bed’s cold and you’re not.”). Instead, she makes the invitation clear nonverbally, and lets Shizune decide for herself. She knows Shizune will never refuse her anything if she outright asks for it, but this is on a different level from Shizune attending “Lady Tsunade” (and she hopes - fuck, does she hope - that Shizune knows that; just thinking that Shizune _might_ be keeping her company at night out of some misguided sense of duty causes a flash of anger and hurt that Tsunade doesn’t want to think too deeply on).

She undresses, puts on soft sleeping clothes. Shizune is there just as she finishes, and they slide into bed. There’s no pretending, not at this hour and not after so many times of doing exactly this. Shizune turns into Tsunade and curls against her, and Tsunade holds her tight, ever-mindful of her strength.

Something in her eases when they settle into each other. Unwillingly, Tsunade realizes she’s been more snappish lately, flares of anger beyond what is normal even for her flashpoint temper. If Shizune weren’t right there through it, Tsunade would have had to entertain the thought that she missed her, but with as much time as they spend together, the idea is ridiculous.

There’s so much utter _relief_ when Shizune is pressed against her that when an idea occurs to Tsunade, she goes with it instead of thinking about it too much. (She knows, somewhere in the back of her mind, that if she thinks about it she won’t do it).

“Shizune,” Tsunade calls, looking down at the woman nestled in her arms.

Shizune looks up, a few pieces of hair falling into her eyes. Tsunade brushes them away with her free hand, the motion absent and practiced.

“I’m gonna-” She can’t quite articulate what it is exactly she’s ‘gonna’, but her eyes keep moving between Shizune’s lips and her eyes, and her tongue darts out to wet her own lips. It’s a sign even genin are taught to look for in marks, but Tsunade can’t quite stop from doing it even as she curses herself for being so obvious.

Tsunade feels Shizune tense, then relax. She nods, dark eyes trusting. Shizune closes her eyes, tilting her head just slightly, and waits.

Objecting thoughts start bubbling up - Tsunade isn’t even attracted to women, Shizune is her twenty-eight year old assistant, Shizune is _Dan’s niece_ \- and Tsunade lowers her head as much to shut up the questioning thoughts as much as she does because she wants to.

There’s the same sense of relief, of comfort, when their lips meet. Tsunade wonders, briefly, if she’s become indiscriminate in her old age. She knows it can’t possibly be true, since she can’t imagine allowing any other woman - or any other man, now that she’s thinking about it - into her bed, but the thought still occurs. Despite the many reasons it shouldn’t be, it’s just Shizune she trusts with this, and a cynical part of her brain chuckles derisively about how she’s giving serious thought to sleeping with her dead lover’s niece.

It’s only the one kiss, for all that it lingers, and when it’s over Tsunade pulls Shizune close again, and shuts her eyes. She’s going to overthink the shit out of this in the morning, but for now she’s tired, and comfortable, and warm.

[*]

Breakfast is a quiet, subdued affair. Shizune watches Tsunade set her body to move automatically, eating with her eyes closed. She’s done this before; it’s a near-meditative state she slips into when she has a lot to think about. Like this, she’ll eat anything Shizune puts in front of her, drink whatever comes to her hand. It usually precludes them leaving some town in a way that gets them away from her debtors in the cleverest possible way, but Shizune doesn’t think they’re about to skip town on Konoha.

They’re through breakfast and Shizune is cleaning up the dishes when Tsunade finally speaks.

“You’re never going to let me go, are you?”

Shizune freezes. They’ve _never_ discussed this. Not when Tsunade is at her most drunk and cutting, not when Shizune turns down the occasional too-forward suitor.

She swallows. There’s nothing she can say. How do you tell the woman you’ve been in love with your entire life that you don’t think you’ll ever fall in love with anyone else? It’s not like there haven’t been offers - good offers, from men or women she knows others would jump at the chance to be with - but none of them are her.

Shizune tries to smile, but she knows it’s just a twitch of her lips. Tsunade doesn’t smile, barely blinks, eyes half-lidded and analyzing her.

“Would you have, before last night?”

Shizune swallows, shakes her head. She never dared think anything physical would ever come of her love for Tsunade; she was prepared to live only taking occasional discreet lovers when her body’s demands crested.

“I don’t know that it will happen again.” Tsunade’s voice is flat, businesslike. She doesn’t move except to take breath, one hand resting on the edges of her teacup as she speaks.

It doesn’t matter. It could never happen again, and Shizune would remember always. She just… can’t say that. There are lines - some of which were crossed last night, some of which are being crossed right now - but that one in particular is one Shizune will stay on this side of, for now.

There’s a long stretch of silence. Tsunade studies her. Shizune studies Tsunade back.

Finally, Tsunade rises, shifts into her ‘Hokage’ persona. “Who do we have to placate today?”

Shizune sighs, shaking her head, and pulls a to-do scroll out of a hidden pocket. She begins to list and explain what they absolutely have to get done today, what they probably should get done today, and what else could use some attention if they have extra time.

It’s brief, but on the way out Shizune feels the brush of Tsunade’s fingertips against her back, reassuring though ephemeral.

[*]

The next time Tsunade takes her into bed, Shizune feels her heart beating like a bird’s.

Tsunade is warm, soft against her, holding her with deliberate care. Shizune doesn’t know if Tsunade will kiss her again. She won’t lie and say she doesn’t want it to happen (she’s thought of little since, in her moments spent away from the job), but this is enough even if she doesn’t.

Shizune hears Tsunade call her name, looks up with her heart in her throat. Even with her exceptional night vision, Shizune can only see the outline of Tsunade’s face in the shadows. Her eyes are unreadable, face relaxed and neutral.

Tsunade cups her cheek. Shizune lets her eyes drift closed, and feels Tsunade’s lips descend upon hers. Tsunade starts to open her mouth under Shizune’s - her heart skips a beat - and Shizune has to pull away.

“Poison,” Shizune whispers against Tsunade’s lips. Tsunade pauses, snorts, and goes back to kissing her close-mouthed.

Shizune exhales and relaxes, feeling Tsunade’s heat envelop her.

[*]

There are two reasons Shizune is greatly respected in Konoha.

One, she’s one of the top five medic-nin of Konoha. She’s no innovator - with one notable exception - but she learns new techniques quickly and thoroughly, and doesn’t need much work to keep up her skills with old ones. She has 98% perfect chakra control (she’s never been able to get that last 1% that would allow her to master Tsunade’s strength technique, but it doesn’t bother her; she has her own interests, for all that anyone who sees them together wouldn’t think it), and a more-than-adequate amount of chakra reserves besides.

The second reason isn’t that she’s Tsunade’s assistant, though many who don’t know her personally think so. Shizune is a poisons innovator. She’s constantly researching different poisons - disabling poisons, undetectable poisons, lethal poisons, etc. - and she always keeps her latest batch in a small pouch in her mouth.

She’s always immune to what she brews, but Tsunade only maintains an immunity to the poisons Shizune uses most reliably. The only medical technique she’s ever invented keeps the poison from the pouch in her mouth flowing into her saliva, so any senbon in her mouth are poisoned when she spits them, without her having to use a technique or manually apply the poison. On the rare - very rare - occasion Shizune takes a lover, she has to both remove the senbon themselves from her mouth and purify her saliva glands so she doesn’t poison anyone she kisses.

(In another life, she could have been a very good assassin; even on a mission where chakra use would alert bodyguards, her senbon and other weapons were unavailable to her, and an obvious cause of death would compromise her, Shizune could still kill with a simple transfer of saliva).

The next time Tsunade invites her into her bed, Shizune murmurs, “I’ll be there in a minute.” Tsunade blinks in surprise, but continues on to her room without comment.

Shizune carefully pulls the senbon from where they lay along her cheek, but keeps them at hand. She’d feel worse than naked if she didn’t have them within arms reach, and she knows Tsunade won’t bat an eyelash. A few minutes spent concentrating, and her saliva is purified of all but trace amounts, which she doesn’t worry about. Tsunade’s resistances are up to date, and her natural regeneration will take care of the minute damage Shizune’s leftover poison would inflict.

She’s nervous - worried, really - and feels… presumptuous, but it doesn’t stop her. If Tsunade wants to go back to how they were, Shizune will accept that role in her life, but if she has the opportunity for more….

Tsunade has already lain down by the time Shizune finishes her cleansing and changes into sleep clothes. Shizune slips into bed next to her, inhaling Tsunade’s scent.

They settle into one another. Shizune feels herself begin to drift off when Tsunade starts stroking her cheek. Her body thrums into awareness, heartbeat speeding and breath coming faster.

“Still poisoned?” Tsunade breathes the question, and Shizune looks up. Shizune shakes her head slowly, her eyes dropping down to where Tsunade licks her lips before moving closer.

She never thought Tsunade would kiss her like this. She’s had plenty of…

(fantasies)

… _thoughts_ about how she’d make love to Tsunade if she were allowed, but nothing could have prepared her for this. Tsunade kisses her in long, slow strokes, soul-deep and searching. It makes Shizune’s breath catch, and she fights down an urge to keen into Tsunade’s mouth. (she doesn’t know exactly what Tsunade is doing, but she doesn’t think Tsunade’s plans - such as they are - involve Shizune reacting like that).

It happens again and again, Tsunade kissing her late at night and then them falling asleep in one bed. It’s every third or fourth night at first, then every other, and eventually Shizune stops using her own bed.

It’s the most sexually frustrating thing she’s ever experienced, but so much more than she’d ever have thought to ask for, and she accepts it. She can, honestly and without second-guessing herself, say that she never asked Tsunade for anything like this, never hinted or implied her desires. It’s that, and that alone, that lets her accept Tsunade’s physical advances. If she thought even for a second that Tsunade felt as though she _had_ to do this to keep Shizune around, or was doing it out of pity, Shizune would put a stop to it. There are too many other factors that make this a less-than-ideal situation without Tsunade’s willingness becoming a question.

Life goes on, as they say, and when Tsunade doesn’t attempt to go any farther, Shizune thinks they’ve plateaued. Tsunade’s never shown any signs of being attracted to women; this could be the most she can give Shizune.

It’s enough.

[*]

Tsunade isn’t one to run on intuition. She’s a ninja, a medical ninja at that. She thrives on information, on certainty. She knows how to run on limited information, but it never stops being uncomfortable.

This… is strangely comfortable.

Tsunade is sleeping better. She’s having fewer fits of temper. Her mind and body seem to be running in better condition; she finds she’s less tired by the end of the day, with more chakra to spare.

Jiraiya notices.

“Hey, Tsunade-hime,” Jiraiya grins, pumping an eyebrow, “you seem like you’re in a good mood lately.”

Tsunade grunts, goes back to her paperwork. There’s only so much Shizune can do; some things call for the Hokage’s personal attention, much as she may dislike it.

“So… you got yourself a gentleman friend?” Jiraiya is behind her in a burst of speed, hovering just over her shoulder. The angle he’s at is insufficient for him to see down her cleavage, carefully so. He’s trying to pump her for information, not wind up in a cast.

Tsunade grunts again, tries to concentrate on the trade negotiations she’s supposed to be reviewing. Shizune has already looked them over and provided a sheaf of notes on what she thinks needs changing, but Tsunade herself has to propose the revisions.

“I knew it!” Jiraiya straightens up, and Tsunade can hear the smirk in his voice. “I knew you were getting your hands on some sweet, sweet-“

Tsunade turns to him, gives him the dirtiest look she has in her arsenal. “Yes, Jiraiya, I have someone in my life. No, Jiraiya, you are _not_ allowed to pump my ANBU - or anyone else - for information, or I will make sure _you_ are never interested in having anyone in that place in _your_ life ever again!” She pointedly glares at his crotch for emphasis, then turns back to her paperwork.

They both know he’ll find out. He’ll put the pieces together, or someone will talk, or she’ll snap it at him to get him to stop pestering her. He knows all her buttons and just how to push them over time to get what he wants without making her snap and physically _make him_ leave her alone.

Tsunade doesn’t know how he’ll react. She knows he won’t contest it, won’t endanger their working relationship, but beyond that, she doesn’t have a clue.

By all rights, she should have ended up with him. He managed to get her to come back and take over the village, has been in love with her for years. She knows that despite his playboy personality, he’d treat her well. He wouldn’t so much as joke about looking at other women if she asked, wouldn’t try to keep her from doing her duty or keep her away from the fighting as so many shinobi husbands do to their kunoichi wives. Hell, she could probably keep Shizune on the side if she were really set on it, they’d both likely accept it.

Ninja end up in some arrangements civilians would never consider, but Tsunade doesn’t think she could handle that one. She’s as far from a civilian as one can be and still be human, but she’s a one-person woman and always has been.

(So much so that she’s still loyal to her first lover, though she’s aware she’s recovering from his death more and more every day. It’s both painful and cathartic to know she’s now capable of considering herself in relationship with someone who isn’t Dan.)

Jiraiya pushes a little more that day, but she banishes him when his implications become more lecherous than she’s willing to deal with. He’s got a genin to train, anyway.

[*]

“Jiraiya thinks I started sleeping with some guy,” Tsunade comments casually, when Shizune is back in the office and Jiraiya is nowhere to be seen. Sakura lurks about somewhere, doing the small paperwork even Shizune is too busy to take care of, but Tsunade isn’t worried. Sakura’s proven through her friendship with the Naruto that she can keep her mouth shut, and Tsunade knows Shizune won’t give anything specific away.

“O-oh, does he?” Shizune blushes, pays studious attention to the papers she’s going over.

“Yep,” Tsunade leans back in her chair, folds her hands behind her head, “says I’m ‘getting my hands on some sweet, sweet’-“

Sakura’s squeak from the pile of paperwork behind her cuts Tsunade off before she can finish with her supposition of what Jiraiya thought. Shizune blushes harder, and Tsunade allows herself a smirk.

That night, when Shizune is curled up on Tsunade’s chest with the blankets twisted around them, Shizune brings it up. “Are you going to tell Jiraiya?”

Tsunade purses her lips. A dozen different ways to handle this go through her mind - deflection, distraction, ignoring it, among others - but she decides to go the direct route. If she wanted someone to manipulate she’d pick one of the villagers, one with no experience with ninja and their games (and besides, Shizune is the one person Tsunade won’t fuck around or lie to). “About this? No, but he’ll find out.”

Shizune doesn’t reply for a long time. She wraps an arm around Tsunade’s waist, burrows into her. Tsunade’s almost sure she’s asleep- when she speaks up.

“Why now?”

Shit.

Tsunade is a repository of answers. She’s the best medic-nin in Konoha, almost certainly the Land of Fire, very possibly in the Great Nations, and therefore her knowledge of the human body is unparalleled. She’s the Hokage and has a 38-year kunoichi career behind her, meaning she knows a lot of ninja-type secrets that many, many people would rather she not have.

This she has no answer for.

Why she first took Shizune to her bed is an easy question to answer: there’s only so much loneliness one woman can take, even one accustomed to a broken heart. Shizune was there, trustworthy, reliable, and just as lonely. Why she continued to do it has the same answer, even when they were both in Konoha; as Hokage she can hardly take one of her subordinates as a lover, and she’s too strong - even without conscious chakra enhancement - to risk a physical relationship with a villager.

Why she escalated their physical relationship isn’t something Tsunade has an answer for, even for herself. If she just needed a physical connection, it would be easy enough to use a transformation to disguise herself and seduce one of the of-age career genin. If she needed an emotional connection, for all that he swears he’s all about the physical, Jiraiya would gladly give her that. She doesn’t find women attractive, isn’t usually attracted to anyone that much younger than her. There are a pile of reasons to _not_ get physically involved with Shizune, but she can’t honestly think of an acceptable reason she should.

“I don’t know,” Tsunade answers finally. It’s not the answer Shizune is looking for, she knows, but it’s all she’s got right now.

Shizune looks up at her, searches her eyes for a moment, then shifts so she’s more fully on top of Tsunade. Her hands are on either side of Tsunade’s head, and her legs twist so she’s lying across Tsunade’s body.

They study each other. Tsunade’s thoughts run on a dozen different tracks, some crashing into one another, some getting to the station long enough to unload unlikely possibilities and pick up likely ones.

“I had to know,” Tsunade whispers, the answer pouring from her mouth just as quickly as it comes to her.

Shizune tilts her head, purses her lips. “Had to know?”

“I had to know-” Tsunade corrects herself mid-stream, “ _have_ to know if…” she swallows, forces the words out, “if I can do this.” Another forced piece of answer: “Touch you. Be… with you, like this.”

Shizune licks her lips. The silence establishes itself, lounges in the space between them, makes itself a home. Then: “Why?”

Tsunade swallows. “I’ll always love Dan,” the declaration comes out more fiercely than she intended, and it gives her a few seconds’ pause. “But he’s… gone. He’s gone, and now I’m the Hokage.” Tsunade feels her explanation pick up steam, her words find the rhythm she wants, “I don’t gamble. I don’t drink half as much as I did. If I can do that, and take this post, I can admit that I need you, and…” Tsunade exhales, then inhales slowly. “And that I’m attracted to you.”

Shizune’s face turns thoughtful. She leans down slowly, breathes out what isn’t quite a question against Tsunade’s lips. “Attracted to me.”

Tsunade doesn’t reply out loud, letting acceptance (and desire, if she’s being honest) show through her eyes. She knows Shizune is testing the waters. They’re far too old for teenage headgames, but this is unfamiliar territory for them both. If Shizune wants to be sure, Tsunade can hardly fault her.

It strikes Tsunade, suddenly, that she has no idea if Shizune is attracted to women other than her. She knows Shizune has taken lovers a few times over the years, but on the rare occasion Tsunade has caught a glimpse of one, it has seemed that Shizune’s tastes run toward the androgynous. It’s possible that the physical side of what they’re getting into is just as new to Shizune, and Tsunade isn’t quite sure what to do with the realization.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Shizune kissing her. Tsunade returns the pressure, wraps her arms a little tighter. Shizune pulls back, studies her face for a few seconds, then kisses her again, and again.

Tsunade slips her hand in under Shizune’s sleep shirt, strokes the small of her back. Shizune’s breath catches in a single started jerk, and they still. Tsunade feels Shizune’s heartbeat against hers, quick and slightly erratic. She waits, makes sure Shizune isn’t going to react badly to what she’s just done, then draws her fingers over Shizune’s skin, slow and deliberate. Shizune shudders against her.

“You’re holding back,” Tsunade murmurs.

“So are you,” Shizune replies, after taking a second to catch her breath, “I’m not porcelain.”

Tsunade purses her lips. Shizune is right, and she knows it. Ninja take harsh beatings in typical spars, let alone actual combat. Even if Shizune isn’t implying she likes it rough - which she may or may not be; for the second time in as many minutes Tsunade mentally admits she knows very little about Shizune’s preferences - she’ll be fine if Tsunade misjudges her strength by a hair.

All the same, Tsunade releases the majority of her strength enhancement. She leaves enough that she can reactivate it at will if necessary, just as Shizune’s needles lie on the nightstand, but she ends up just as disarmed of her primary weapon as Shizune is.

Shizune’s face flashes confusion as she feels Tsunade rearrange her chakra distribution, then comprehension dawns. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Neither did you,” Tsunade returns, sliding her hand farther up the skin of Shizune’s back.

Shizune arches into the touch, exhales, moves against Tsunade. There’s a second’s worth of eye contact, and then they’re back at it.

The whole game changes from there. Shizune stops muting herself, letting out small gasps and moans as Tsunade learns the shape of her body. Tsunade feels her insides heat up and her pulse race as Shizune moves against her. Being with Shizune has been comfortable and pleasurable from the start, but now there’s a rising urgency.

Clothes fall to the floor piece by piece, and the suggestion of friction becomes skin sliding against skin. Tsunade relearns the feel of another person’s body against hers, and Shizune teaches her how women chase pleasure together.

Tsunade wakes with her arm thrown over Shizune’s side, and Shizune stirs not long after. The normally-reticent Shizune kisses her good morning, and soon the night before is played on repeat.

They arrive at the Hokage’s building late, flushed and sated on the inside, businesslike on the outside, with none but Tsunade’s personal ANBU the wiser.

[*]

“Sakura. Scram.”

Shizune looks up from a list of currently injured ninja to see Tsunade’s intense gaze focused on her. She manages to suppress her flush, though she only does so for Sakura’s sake.

“Tsunade-sama?” Sakura stammers out a disbelieving question.

Shizune is aware that somewhere to her right, Sakura is confused and a little wary, but the majority of her attention is on the look Tsunade is giving her, the one that promises nakedness in their future.

“You could stay here,” Tsunade says smoothly, swinging her chair so she’s fully facing Shizune, “but you’re a little young to be watching a practical demonstration of the birds and the birds.”

Sakura squeaks, and Shizune can imagine her shocked expression. Tsunade quirks an eyebrow at Shizune, her focused attention effectively dismissing Sakura whether or not she leaves right away.

Shizune stands, leaving the scroll unrolled on the desk, and walks to where Tsunade sits. Along the way, she gets a glimpse of Sakura’s gobsmacked expression, but everything not Tsunade is starting to fade out of her senses. Tsunade pulls her closer, guiding Shizune to sit on her lap. Tonton scrambles off of Tsunade’s desk with nary an oink and waddles out, smarter than Sakura by half.

It takes Shizune giggling and telling Tsunade, “behave!” mock-seriously before Sakura finally flees the office. Tsunade spares her a look that clearly says _I’m trusting you with this, don’t make me regret it_ , and orders her to lock the door behind her, before laying a hand on Shizune’s thigh.

“You weren’t serious about-” Shizune’s eyes flutter shut as Tsunade begins to kiss her neck, “-mm, about letting her stay, were you?”

Tsunade snorts, nips at Shizune’s jaw. “Even if she grows up to like watching women fuck, she’s not Jiraiya’s brat; Sakura’s got a while before she gets comfortable with sex.”

Shizune hums, no longer interested in discussing she and Tsunade’s underage apprentice. She turns her head to meet Tsunade’s lips with her own, and they spend long minutes in a quiet haze of pleasure. When Tsunade’s hand starts to move farther up her thigh, Shizune stands and tugs her toward the window, preferring the comfort of their bed.

They end up having sex against the inside of the front door to the house before they get into their bed proper, but Shizune decides that’s just as good. They’re together, and that’s more than she ever could have asked for.


End file.
